Describe how authors use literary devices and text features to convey meaning in prose, poetry, and drama.
Identify clues in the text to recognize implicit meanings.
Apply prior knowledge to textual clues to draw conclusions about the author’s meaning.
Make an inference about the meaning of a text and support it with textual
evidence.
Arkansas Academic Standards:
RL.4.5
Compare and contrast the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter), drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions), and prose.
Arizona Academic Standards:
4.RL.5
Explain the overall structure and major differences between poetry, drama, and prose.
Common Core State Standards:
Literacy.RL.4.5
Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE):
ELAGSE4RL5
Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.
North Carolina - Standard Course of Study:
RL.4.5
Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems and drama when writing or speaking about a text.
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards:
4R5
In literary texts, identify and analyze structural elements, using terms such as verse, rhythm, meter, characters, settings, dialogue, stage directions. (RL) In informational texts, identify the overall structure using terms such as sequence, comparison, cause/effect, and problem/solution. (RI)
Tennessee Academic Standards:
4.RL.CS.5
Explain major differences between poems, drama, and stories, and refer to the structural elements when writing or speaking about a text.
Wisconsin Academic Standards:
R.4.5
Identify and analyze structural elements, using terms such as verse, rhythm, meter, characters, settings, dialogue, stage directions. (RL) Identify the overall structure using terms such as sequence, comparison, cause and effect, and problem and solution. (RI)
Pennsylvania Core Standards:
CC.1.3.4.E
Explain major differences between poems, drama,and prose and refer to the structural elements of each when writing or speaking about a text.
4th Grade Reading - Structural Elements Lesson
Story
A story is a made-up passage that shows events that happen to a character or characters. Usually, a story only shows a part of a character’s life.
These are the elements or parts of a story:
A beginning, middle, and an end
A problem or a conflict that the character has to solve
A climax or a turning point in which the problem builds up
Characters that speak through dialogue or who
are described by the narrator
Sentences and paragraphs instead of stanzas
The time and place in which the events happen (setting)
The main idea or message of the story (theme)
Drama
A drama, or play, is a passage that tells a story using the lines characters say to each other.
These are the elements or parts of a drama:
Cast of characters: a list that appears near the beginning of the play; shows the characters that appear in the play
Stage setting: the description of the time and place of the play and what the characters are doing as the scene begins
Dialogue: the lines that the characters say to each other to move the plot along
Stage directions: the words that appear in parentheses throughout the play and tell the characters how to act
Scene/Act: a small part of a play in which all actions happen in one place and at one time
Poem
A poem is a passage that often uses rhyme and rhythm. Poems are made up of lines. A group of lines is called a stanza.
These are the elements or parts of a poem:
Verses: lines that make up a poem
Stanzas: a group of lines
Rhyme: using words that end in the same sound
Rhythm: the way sound is repeated in a pattern
Meter: the beat of the poem made by repeating a pattern of syllables